


dream

by downmoon



Series: a lifetime [4]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-18
Updated: 2017-11-18
Packaged: 2019-02-04 02:31:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12761247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/downmoon/pseuds/downmoon
Summary: There’s a brief, wild moment of panic, where he still feels trapped in his dream, but then he turns his head to the left and stares into the the dying embers of their evening fire and reality shudders into place around him.“Alright there?” Sheik asks lowly, just loud enough to be heard over the last snaps of the fire. Link grunts and grinds the palms of his heels against his eyes, taking the moment to steady his breathing. When he moves his hands, black spots spark across his vision.





	dream

There’s a brief, wild moment of panic, where he still feels trapped in his dream, but then he turns his head to the left and stares into the the dying embers of their evening fire and reality shudders into place around him.

Sheik is watching him, openly staring as Link pushes himself up from his bedroll, brushing sweat-damp hair out of his face. He’s long grown used to Sheik’s curious stares, but the feeling of those eyes over him has him unnerved, unsettled. Like his mind is being probed.

“Alright there?” Sheik asks lowly, just loud enough to be heard over the last snaps of the fire. Link grunts and grinds the palms of his heels against his eyes, taking the moment to steady his breathing. When he moves his hands, black spots spark across his vision.

Sheik’s attention has wandered back to the work in front of him, which doesn’t look like much of anything besides throwing twigs into the dying fire. Link takes a few more deep breaths until his heart doesn’t feel like it will beat out of his chest.

“You can go back to sleep,” Sheik says, before Link can muster up any words, “I’ll take your watch tonight.”

Link shakes his head. There are words right on the tip of his tongue, apologies, reassurances, but they stick in his mouth, a tangled mess that he can’t bring himself to spit out.

He can feel Sheik’s gaze slide over to his prone form, but he pointedly looks away, staring out over the dark copse of trees they’d tucked away in for the night. A creature howls off in the distance, but there’s a certain sense of warm security he’s gained in traveling with Sheik. A shame it ends here.

“Sheik,” Link mutters, clearing his throat. “I can’t...Kakariko Village is a few days away. It won’t be an easy ride, but you can make it safely. They can help you there–”

“Link.”

Sheik’s barely raised his voice. It hums like velvet in the stretch of space between them, comforting and commanding in the same instance. “What did you dream?”

Link shifts on his bedroll, a shiver running down his spine as the cool night air seeps into his bones. The question is not unexpected, but the answer weighs heavy on his heart.

“The past,” Link whispers, after a heartbeat. “I...have to help her.”

“The princess?”

He nods absently. His hands clench in the coarse fabric of his bedroll, a weak attempt at stopping the tremors shuddering through his muscles. He can still hear her voice in his head, the echo of her desperate cries piercing the black scape of his brain, the pain exploding in the center of his throat–

“...help you.”

Link blinks once, and sucks in another breath. He feels dizzy suddenly, like he’s just broken the surface of a dark lake. He shakes his head, looking at the embers, their packs, the horses nickering softly just beyond the edge of the light made by the fire.

“Link?” Sheik calls. He leans forward from his cross-legged seat, his eyes catching the glow of the light. “Did you hear me?”

“Huh?”

Sheik smiles at that, that boyish grin that breaks the otherwise stern lines of his face and goes back to flicking bits of wood into the fire. “I said I’ll help you. No need to take this burden upon yourself.”

Link stares for a moment, and another moment more, as he works through the hazy fog of sleep still clouding the edge of his consciousness, processing the words that just left Sheik’s mouth.

“You...you’ll help me?”

“Has your hearing gone? I’ve said it twice now. _Yes_ , Link, I’ll help you. There, three times. Do you need me to write it out for you as well?”

“But– Sheik. Your– your name, your history–” Link stammers out.

Sheik shrugs. “They can wait. This village you mentioned– Kakariko– it’s not going anywhere, right?” Sheik pauses for a moment, his teeth coming to press gently into the plush swell of his bottom lip. He clears his throat, his mouth opening once, twice, until he begins to speak again.

“The truth is. Link, you saved me. I would’ve been... _buried_ in a cave for a lifetime, for eternity, if you hadn’t woken me up. The least I can do is help ease your burden.”

It’s uncharacteristically hesitant of Sheik, like every word is being dragged out of his mouth, whether out of shyness or this intimate admission, Link couldn’t say. He gapes at Sheik another moment more, his eyes wide with disbelief.

“Sheik, I can’t...accept this, it’s too much–”  
  
“Oh, come off it, Link,” Sheik says, that boisterously confident lilt slipping back into his tone, “two are better than one in any situation. At least let me tag along to mind the horses.”

“You hate the horses.”

“That. Is not true. Rosie only tried to buck me once yesterday. We’re bonding.”

Link smiles and huffs out a breath of a laugh. Sheik’s persuasive when he wants to be, which is almost all of the time, charming peddlers out of their goods with little more than a smile and a few words, at a _much_ lower price than Link would’ve paid. And part of him…

Part of him wants Sheik around, wants that warm comfort of shared companionship, his quick words and his wit and his laughter. But part of him considers the dangers he’s already faced, how hard it was to tear control of a single divine beast away from Ganon. There are still three more to find and cleanse, and Zelda–

“Sheik,” Link whispers, “don’t leave.”

His eyes feel heavy suddenly, words tumbling unbidden and unchecked from his mouth. He hears Sheik shift somewhere near the fire. “Don’t leave me. I can't- I don't want to be alone anymore."

A cool hand slips into his, and Link hardly registers the feeling of his body lowering back into the warmth of his bedroll, before he slips back into dreamless slumber.


End file.
